Tuesday, March 28th, 4:30 – 6:00pm PT
This workshop will explore the often problematic relationship many students and educators have with STEM education emerging from traumatic experiences we simply never address. This workshop particularly focuses on the roots of STEM as it relates to white supremacy culture and STEM education, and how that bleeds into the way we see ourselves, or don’t, in in those fields. We will look at ELP’s HQPA principles (1: Eliciting evidence of learning that matters & 2: Tight on its criteria for success) as a means to address healing and thriving in the design of STEM assessments that matter. As 2 educators of color, we will create a learning environment that is safe especially for the most marginalized communities to have a voice, and use our expertise as STEM leaders to begin to change the narrative within our school structures. Participants will: have dialogue opportunities in pairs, and small groups, journaling time, creation of personal STEAM projects to help process their trauma, and leave with a plan created to address how the will disrupt STEM trauma in their lives/workplace.
This is an interactive hands-on workshop where participants will prototype a high quality performance assessment (HQPA) aligned to deeper learning competencies. Through learning stations, participants will explore the what and why of performance assessments and use quality criteria tools to analyze for rigor, learner agency, and authenticity. Then participants will prototype their ideal HQPA, and reflect on their own learning and leadership.
This learning experience is organized around the principle that learning happens when learners’ own ideas are an active focus of the sense-making process. This is true for students who are presented with problems in their math class and being challenged to make sense of the problem, rather than being told an algorithm. This is also true for educators who are being asked to structure learning environments in new ways. This session discusses how one district has redefined what math class is, and how that new definition is framing the ways that students, teachers, and administrators are engaging in learning, including professional learning.This example serves as a focal point for experiencing what a modernized math classroom looks like, sounds like, and feels like. The session begins with a series of questions that encourage participants to reflect on their experiences as mathematicians. Many educators have not experienced learning environments that promote deep learning, therefore, it is important to create safe spaces where participants honestly reflect on how this discrepancy may impact their professional stance. We will explore what matters most in mathematics classrooms and we model how to prioritize deep and robust mathematical understanding. Modern math classrooms seek to both heal the traumas incurred from experiencing systems — math education — designed to sort learners, and establish new routines and practices that center deep and diverse problem-solving. There are a multitude of ways that one could approach the task of healing through teaching and learning, for this session we look closely at mathematics learning environments that allow student ideas to fuel the teaching and learning. We will highlight the ways that this environment supports learners to make their thinking visible, how learners revise their thinking in an iterative sense-making process, and how students use formal and informal mathematical language to communicate their ideas.
Tuesday, March 28th, 5:15 – 6:00pm PT
Funders have felt that PBL + DL is not worth funding when trying to close achievement gaps for majority BIPOC learners. Others feel that BIPOC students MUST demonstrate that they have the basics they know (usually via standardized tests) before they engage in projects. What we have observed is that educators in the system need to know DL from the inside out. So how do we, as Black leaders, create the conditions for our educators (who are often not Black) to engage in deeper learning themselves? What does it mean to build or talk about a DL school system that dismantles racist + oppressive idealogy?
Thursday, March 30th, 9:45 – 11:15am PT
This workshop will explore the often problematic relationship many students and educators have with STEM education emerging from traumatic experiences we simply never address. This workshop particularly focuses on the roots of STEM as it relates to white supremacy culture and STEM education, and how that bleeds into the way we see ourselves, or don’t, in in those fields. We will look at ELP’s HQPA principles (1: Eliciting evidence of learning that matters & 2: Tight on its criteria for success) as a means to address healing and thriving in the design of STEM assessments that matter. As 2 educators of color, we will create a learning environment that is safe especially for the most marginalized communities to have a voice, and use our expertise as STEM leaders to begin to change the narrative within our school structures. Participants will: have dialogue opportunities in pairs, and small groups, journaling time, creation of personal STEAM projects to help process their trauma, and leave with a plan created to address how the will disrupt STEM trauma in their lives/workplace.
This learning experience is organized around the principle that learning happens when learners’ own ideas are an active focus of the sense-making process. This is true for students who are presented with problems in their math class and being challenged to make sense of the problem, rather than being told an algorithm. This is also true for educators who are being asked to structure learning environments in new ways. This session discusses how one district has redefined what math class is, and how that new definition is framing the ways that students, teachers, and administrators are engaging in learning, including professional learning.This example serves as a focal point for experiencing what a modernized math classroom looks like, sounds like, and feels like. The session begins with a series of questions that encourage participants to reflect on their experiences as mathematicians. Many educators have not experienced learning environments that promote deep learning, therefore, it is important to create safe spaces where participants honestly reflect on how this discrepancy may impact their professional stance. We will explore what matters most in mathematics classrooms and we model how to prioritize deep and robust mathematical understanding. Modern math classrooms seek to both heal the traumas incurred from experiencing systems — math education — designed to sort learners, and establish new routines and practices that center deep and diverse problem-solving. There are a multitude of ways that one could approach the task of healing through teaching and learning, for this session we look closely at mathematics learning environments that allow student ideas to fuel the teaching and learning. We will highlight the ways that this environment supports learners to make their thinking visible, how learners revise their thinking in an iterative sense-making process, and how students use formal and informal mathematical language to communicate their ideas.
We look forward to learning with you!
